Expireds and FSBOs

Approaching Expireds & FSBOs: How to Show Them You’re ListeningAre you working the expired niche?

Many agents have turned to expired listings and FSBO (For Sale By Owner) homes as a lucrative niche market. Like most niche markets, this one comes with its own unique strategies for success. Here are some tips to help you, if you’re going to give it a go:

1. Prior to your first personal contact, begin a “drip campaign” to position yourself as someone with an active interest in helping them solve their sales challenge. This may begin with a postcard, continue with a newsletter, and lead into a personal letter.

2. When you contact the prospect personally, don’t attempt to overwhelm them with why your sales approach is better. Ask one simple question: “Why do you think your house hasn’t sold yet?”

3. Be prepared to listen. You’re probably going to hear a lot of anger, frustration, and fear. Maintain sympathy and maintain a reserved attitude. Express genuine interest in seeing if you can help them solve the problem. See if you can arrange a meeting at the property–no obligations.

4. If you have worked expireds or FSBOs in the past introduce your past experiences in the context of the prospects’ challenges, and how you solved those challenges. For example, never say, “I’ve sold homes with the same lawn problems you have,” but rather, “I have been in situations where my clients have gotten a lot of people off the street and into the open houses once we added some inexpensive upgrades to the entryway.”

5. One of the benefits of working expireds and FSBOs is that they’ve acquired some market knowledge through hard knocks. Fantasies of quick, high-value sales have vanished for them. Many are ready to do a little work, provided their agent seems actively interested in helping “solve the puzzle of the sale.” That said, don’t devalue the tough time they’ve had. Whatever you do, never make the prospect feel like they’re a picked over carcass, and that you’re “willing to take a crack at it.”

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Great point! I would also add, that even though most of the FSBOs are OK with paying real estate agent a commission when they bring a buyer, they do not realize that they are not being represented by the agent, even though if the agent is a transaction-broker they cannot give an advice to either party. It’s worth hire an agent to sell the house and have a professional at your side.

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